Yokokawa T, et al. - In this inquiry performed on 32 heart failure patients and 28 controls, researchers determined whether cell-free DNA (cfDNA) holds a clinical significance in heart failure. Findings revealed no difference in total cfDNA levels noted between groups. In heart failure patients vs controls, a significantly high cardiomyocyte-specific cfDNA was shown via bisulfite-digital polymerase chain reaction using the unmethylated FAM101A locus. A significant differentiation of heart failure patients from controls was afforded by cardiomyocyte-specific cfDNA (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, 0.716). In addition, a positive correlation of cardiomyocyte-specific cfDNA with troponin I but not with B-type natriuretic peptide was evident. Overall, experts concluded that cfDNA may serve as a new biomarker to measure cardiomyocyte death in heart failure.